Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-06-16
and his innocent wife, who knows moth.

and his innocent wife, who knows moth.
ing about the Intervention of the dis.
Greet agency, exclaims in moment Of
expansion: my Anatole, what lucky
idea that you stopped at Dion on your
way to Geneva! Had it not been for
that, we might never have metz
Now comes the question, How did
the matrimonial agent know that this
modest and honorable spinster was
waiting for husband on the outskirts
of DijonP The answer is, because he
has correspondents all over France,
who send him information and exercise
a sort of secret police on his account
In the provinces every body knows
every thing about every body else, and
it is easy for the correspondents of the
matrimonial agents to note that Mile.
A. has inherited $4,000, that Mile. b.
has weakness for lawyers, and that
Mile. G. has refused to take the vail
VERY good" you will say. Nov tell
me how the matrimonial agent man.
ages to bring the young people togeth-
err" This is precisely the point where
genius comes into play, aided often by
an obliging priest. The matrimonial
agent has under his command a whole
army of secondary agents, who may
be classified under seven headings, viz.
scouts, entertainers having homes, per-
manent or temporary inquiry agents,
travellers, followers, introducers and
conscious or unconscious intermedi-
aries. The chief scout of a first-class
Partisan matrimonial agency was
formerly body-servant of Cavour; he
married the chambermaid of a fashion
able beauty of the court of Napoleon
Ill; and now he and his wife earn in
their new profession $4,000 year.
Their business is to discover marriage
able girls and to report them at head.
quarters; the ex-valet of Cavour Cos
sips at cafes with men servants in rich
families; he learns the modus UiUend
of each family; he gets the names of al
the friends of a family, and, if neces
sary, the names of the friends of the
friends. Thanks to this information
the chief matrimonial agent is able tt
discover among these names either thai
of person affiliated with the agency
or else an unconscious agent who will
introduce his client to the family of thu
young ladywhose hand and dowry ar,
to be won.
Travellers are agents sent to tn,
provinces, and especially to the sea
side or to watering places, on som'
special mission. Followers are volun
teer agents who go to marriages an,
midday masses in the Paris churches
remark young girls accompanied b,
their mothers, follow them to thei
homes, and by dint of patience dis
cover who they are, what they ar,
worth, and so constitute a sort o
dossier or brief, which they sell to al
agency. Conscious Intermediates ar
financial agents, solicitors or notarie
whose business enables them to collec
information of private kind. AS TO
the unconscious agents, they ar
created by the conscious intermediar
who calls upon friend of the famil
about which information is required
or upon doctor or priest who is il
relations with that family. This con
scious intermediary has an honorabl
social position; he apologies for in
truding, and says that he has been sen
to ask for information in view G
marriage much desired by perso
whom he is not yet at liberty to name
The family is puzzled, wonders VIII
the mysterious person may be, an
answers vaguely, perhaps, but suff
GENTLY to enable the agency to kno'
what are the desires of the family
Then, if the agency has not on i,
books client capable of realizin
those desires, it is but a poor agenc,
The bride rarely knows that she ha
been won through the intermediary {
an agency. 1t is only the very richl
lowered who are aware of the existcnc
of this complicated and mysterior
machinery, and who are therefor
tempted to see in every young ma
with whom they waltz client of
matrimonial agency which is seekin
to earn its usual commission of twely
per cent. on the dowry. Thanks to ii
extension of the operations of matr
monial agencies, French marriages
the middle and upper classes tend MOI
and more to become merely operation
of loveless arithmetical multiplication
nh n a. ~ Y Sam